In one of its latest infographics, Ninestar highlights 2019 full year results and achievements for the group.
Revenue for the fiscal year 2019 was ¥23.296 billion ($3.298 billion/ €3.015 billion), an increase of 6.25% year-on-year with net profit attributable to shareholders of ¥744 million ($105,346 million/ €96,29 million), a drop of 21.71% year-on-year.
Ninestar said that revenues from compatible printing consumables reached ¥3.724 billion ($527,298 million/ €482,086 million). The company added: “The consumable business continued to prosper. Under the fierce global competition in the consumables industry, Ninestar, a leading company in the global market segment known by its patent technology, product quality and market share advantages, had much higher growth rate of sales in consumables than the industry average.”
In 2019, Lexmark’s printer sales increased 8% year-on-year, which Ninestar said was amongst the highest rate in the global market. The company recorded operating income of ¥17.96 billion ($2.543 billion/ €2.324 billion) for the period, an increase year-on-year of 4.6%. Pantum recorded a 48% year-on-year increase with global shipments reaching 1.15 million units. Pantum’s key markets include India, China and Russia which according to Ninestar continued to see a rapid growth.
For the Q1 2020 Ninestar recorded revenues of ¥5.24 billion ($742,015 million/ €678,340 million), a 2.17% increase year-on-year. For the first quarter in 2020 Ninestar’s integrated circuit business which includes Apex and Static recorded revenues of ¥1.297 billion ($183,636 million/ €167,902 million). Ninestar added: “Apex has maintained its competitiveness in first-to-market products and released a number of new product line. Meanwhile, in response to frequent firmware upgrades of OEM in 2019, Apex has preceded others with effective product solutions.”
By the end of 2019 the company had a total of 18,491 employees worldwide and had acquired 4,498 authorised patents, including 3,206 invention patents, 978 utility patents, 314 design patents, and 87 software copyrights and integrated circuit layout designs.
Looking forward to plans in 2020, Ninestar said that it is looking to carry out efficient prevention and actively respond to firmware upgrades from the OEMs. Ninestar plans to release four new MCU products in 2020, focusing on medical equipment, household appliances, motor control, mobile phone peripherals, sharing economy and IoT, etc.
For its consumables business, Ninestar said it will further the integration across its businesses within this segment, but also mentions there will need to be cost reductions. The company is looking to adopt a multi-brand strategy and cover as many market segments as possible.
For Lexmark and Pantum, Ninestar is looking to realise continuous growth of printer sales and supplies sales.
